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Just curious, but I have heard that one method to "precarbonizing" the bowl is to basically burn honey into charcoal and mill it into a powdery substance. Has anyone ever heard of this? Would just a light coat of honey in the bowl work. Obviously it wouldn't be able to be smoked for a couple days after, but it might sweeten the smoke...... Just looking for some thoughts.....

last time I got a new pipe, I just rubbed some honey around the inside of the bowl for the first smoke, then packed and burned it as usual, the smoke was a little more acrid, but it seems to have worked (it took a couple packs to burn all the honey off though, especially the stuff at the bottom, that pipe doesn't burn well towards the end). Don't know if that's the right way to do it, but I've done it, and it seems to work.

What part of the bowl is the alterior?

Burning honey into charcoal is a new one. Haven't heard of that one before. It doesn't sound right to me.

The idea behind a bowl coating is to help the break in process, protecting the bare wood and "initiating" the cake.

There are plenty of recipes in this forum for bowl coating - sour cream, buttermilk, activated charcoal, water glass, etc.

The oldest break-in trick I've heard is rubbing honey with a little water inside the bowl (grape jelly is another). This makes some tobacco and ash stick to the interior walls, which helps start the carbon cake build-up.

I don't smoke any new pipes without a precarb on them - either the dairy recipe, or the one with waterglass. When I'm finished smoking it and nothing is left but ash and dottle, I put my palm over the rim and shake the pipe a bit. This help distribute the ash and build a cake.

The honey or jelly trick never really appealed to me. I'm not a fan of the smell or taste of burnt sugar.

I rub a little chicken gravy in there to help with break-in. If I don't have that, I'll sometimes go with Nutella.

Oompa-Loompa!!!

ToddJohnson wrote:I rub a little chicken gravy in there to help with break-in. If I don't have that, I'll sometimes go with Nutella.

Oompa-Loompa!!!

...or mix the tears of a maiden taken at midnight with powdered dragon eyelashes and paint the bowl twice to the left and three times to the right. The recipes never end.

tritrek wrote:

ToddJohnson wrote:I rub a little chicken gravy in there to help with break-in. If I don't have that, I'll sometimes go with Nutella.

Oompa-Loompa!!!

...or mix the tears of a maiden taken at midnight with powdered dragon eyelashes and paint the bowl twice to the left and three times to the right. The recipes never end.

That's MY secret recipe!! How'd you get it!!

Thanks to those who answered the question......

I certainly appreciate the help!

I never use anything to break in a pipe and I'm not sure why others do.

I just pack the bowl normally, smoke cool and gently to the bottom; and like Kurt, for the first 20 or so bowls (until some cake forms), when I've finished the tobacco, I cap the bowl with my thumb and shake it up so ash coats the interior bare wood.